Admit your ignorance - things you've only just realised/learned

[Bonefish Blues]

I learned a thing last week and made a particular note to pop it on this thread. Do your own punchline

 

[Alex321]

The downside to all of these vague or missing instructions is that by default people will chuck everything in the green bin (in our case). As a result, a fairly low percentage of stuff actually gets recycled. I know some regions where they have 5 different bags to put things in;

Yep.

We have a white bag for paper, an orange one for cardboard (and brown paper), a blue one for hard plastic & metals (tin cans, foil containers etc) A small white bag for batteries, a large grey caddy for glass, and a smaller green caddy for food waste. Then every three weeks we have black bags (up to 3 per household) for general rubbish, and if you pay £20 per year, green bags for garden waste, every two weeks from Mrch to November. All those bags are re-useable, heavy (plastic) canvas.

And according to https://myrecyclingwales.org.uk/local_authorities/vale-glamorgan our recycling rate is 70%

 

[figbat]

We have one recycling wheelie bin into which you can put paper, cardboard, plastics, glass and metal. Last figure I’ve seen is 60.7% for local authority recycling but that includes the recycling centres.

We definitely put out more recycling than landfill - the landfill wheelie bin is smaller, both go out every other week and the recycling bin is always full (although doubtless the density of the recyling waste is lower).

 

[AndyRM]

Persil is a German thing.

 

[figbat]

Persil is a German thing.

And the name comes from the original chemicals that were combined to offer improved cleansing: sodium perborate (an oxygen-releasing bleaching agent) and sodium silicate (a detergent).

 

[AndyRM]

And the name comes from the original chemicals that were combined to offer improved cleansing: sodium perborate (an oxygen-releasing bleaching agent) and sodium silicate (a detergent).

Yep, learned that too. I'm in Düsseldorf just now and wondered why I kept seeing old school ads for it so asked a guy in the Film Museum who seemed to know everything about everything. Henkel, who seem to have half the rights to it started up here, Unilever have the other half (including the UK rights which is where I always thought it was from).

I know how to have a good time on holiday!

 

[DaveReading]

Persil is a German thing.

Ask for persil in France and you'll get parsley ...

 

[presta]

The difference between an axe and a maul.

 

[ColinJ]

The difference between an axe and a maul.

(Looks it up...)

Ah!

 

[presta]

That's a different difference to this one:


View: https://x.com/normonics/status/1996290245474578755

 

[Profpointy]

Some geekery from a former life…
British standards have the prefix ‘BS’.
IIRC, BS 01 is the standard for creating a standard.
There’s also a British standard for making a cup of tea. You wouldn’t want a European standard for that (I’m looking at you, Liptons)

I read an explanation of the tea-making standard, which naturally enough had been ridiculed as red-tape gorn maaad by the usual suspects. The point of it wasn't per se to make a good cup of tea, but to have a consistent way of brewing tea for tea tasters and the like who were blending or purchasing tea. You'd then be able to make a sensible assessment, albeit still subjective, of the tea leaves in question, rather than assessing whatever unreproducable method than had been used to make the cuppa

 

[Fergs]

I read an explanation of the tea-making standard, which naturally enough had been ridiculed as red-tape gorn maaad by the usual suspects. The point of it wasn't per se to make a good cup of tea, but to have a consistent way of brewing tea for tea tasters and the like who were blending or purchasing tea. You'd then be able to make a sensible assessment, albeit still subjective, of the tea leaves in question, rather than assessing whatever unreproducable method than had been used to make the cuppa

Yup, exactly that.

Which didn’t stop the international sales team of the British Standards Institution dishing out promotional teabags, which always went down well with foreign customers 😁

 

[figbat]

I read an explanation of the tea-making standard, which naturally enough had been ridiculed as red-tape gorn maaad by the usual suspects. The point of it wasn't per se to make a good cup of tea, but to have a consistent way of brewing tea for tea tasters and the like who were blending or purchasing tea. You'd then be able to make a sensible assessment, albeit still subjective, of the tea leaves in question, rather than assessing whatever unreproducable method than had been used to make the cuppa

I used to work in a scientific environment and we used a lot of standards: BS, ISO, DIN, ASTM and so on. We had a copy of BS 6008 in our communal tea room (as a bit of a joke to correct any miscreants who did things like milk in with the tea bag).

I notice though that BS 6008 was withdrawn in 2023 which leaves ISO 3103 as the ongoing standard for “Tea — Preparation of liquor for use in sensory tests”.

 

[Chris S]

JD McPherson is an American singer-songwriter. His song 'Bad Kid' contains the lines:

He knocked off a Macy's and my uncle's antiques
Hocked 'em for forty-nine quid

'Quid' must also mean dollar.

 

[ColinJ]

JD McPherson is an American singer-songwriter. His song 'Bad Kid' contains the lines:

He knocked off a Macy's and my uncle's antiques
Hocked 'em for forty-nine quid

'Quid' must also mean dollar.

Apparently, it means chewing tobacco over there, but that wouldn't make much sense unless the bad kid in question had a terrible nicotine addiction!